There are many people who say Thomas Edison single-handedly invented the twentieth century. Although there are those who may disagree， one thing cannot be denied： Edison was a genius， and his inventions greatly affected the development of modern society.

有许多人认为是爱迪生一手创造了20世纪。虽然不少人可能有不同的看法，但有一件事无法否认：爱迪生是个天才，他的发明深刻地影响了现代社会的发展。

Born in 1847 in Ohio， Thomas Edison attended school for only three months. After his teacher claimed that he could not learn， Edisons mother decided to teach him at home. There he was allowed to explore the subjects that most interested him. By age ten， Edison had built a science laboratory in the basement of his familys home and had become an avid experimenter.

1847年，爱迪生出生于俄亥俄州。他仅仅上了三个月的学。在爱迪生的老师声称他有学习障碍之后，他的母亲决定在家教他。在家里，爱迪生可以随心所欲地探索最使他感兴趣的事物。十岁那年，爱迪生在家里的地下室建了一间科学实验室。从此，爱迪生就成为一位孜孜不倦的实验者。

Edison got his first job at age twelve on the railway selling candy and newspapers. Three years later， he suffered an ear injury from a train accident and lost much of his hearing. He could have had an operation， but he refused. He insisted that being deaf helped him concentrate on his experiments.

十二岁时，爱迪生找到了他的第一份工作──在火车上卖糖果和报纸。三年后，一场火车事故导致他耳朵受伤，几乎完全失聪。他本可以接受手术治疗，但他拒绝了，因为他坚信，听觉的丧失可以让他更专心地做实验。

Thomas Edisons first invention was the automatic telegraph repeater. He was already an expert on the telegraph before he came up with a gadget that sent telegraph signals between unmanned stations. Thanks to Edison， people were then able to send several telegraph messages simultaneously.

电报自动转发器是爱迪生的第一个发明。他发明的这种装置，用于在无人看管的两站之间传输电报信号。在此项发明前，爱迪生就已经是位电报专家了。幸亏有爱迪生，我们才能在同一时间传送好几封电报讯息。

Next came the electric vote recorder. It made voting quicker and more accurate， yet no one wanted to buy it. Edison then moved on to tackle the stock market ticker， the machine that gave information about stock market prices. Edison improved it， and sold the rights for US$40，000.

接下来的电子计票器让统计票数的速度更快、更准确，但却没有人买。之后，爱迪生转而进行股票行情收录器的研究，他改进了收录器，并将该项专利以四万美元卖出。

In his late twenties， Edison built an “invention factory” where he and his business partners could dedicate all their time to inventing. After improving upon the telephone， Edison created the phonograph， his favorite and most lucrative invention. Although Edison did not actually invent the light bulb， he did create an electric lighting system which led to its widespread use.

近三十岁时，爱迪生盖了一座“发明工厂”，可让他和他的同事专心致力于发明工作。在改进了电话功能后，爱迪生又发明了留声机，这是他喜爱的而且最能赚钱的一项发明。虽然爱迪生实际上并没有发明灯泡，但他的确发明了电灯照明系统，这促进了灯泡的广泛使用。

A tireless achiever， Edison established the first central electric power station in 1882， enabling New York to be the first city in the world to have electric lights. This was the beginning of the modern world in which electricity became a way of life.

1882年，这位孜孜不倦的实践家建成了第一座中央电站，使纽约市成为世界上第一个有电力照明设备的城市。这就是现代世界的开始，用电成为人们的一种生活方式。

The following year， one of Edisons engineers discovered electrons， which eventually led to electronics. This discovery was patented as the “Edison effect”. Without electronics， we might not have radio， TV， computers， or space travel. The rest of Edisons life was spent making and improving inventions including the motion picture camera， the alkaline battery， the copy machine， and the microphone.

第二年，爱迪生手下的一名工程师发现了电子，最终产生了电子学。这个发现以“爱迪生效应”为名获得发明专利。假若没有电子学，我们很可能就没有收音机、电视机、电脑甚至没有太空旅行。在最后的岁月里，爱迪生继续创造并改进那些发明，其中包括电影摄像机、碱性电池、复印机及麦克风。

Thomas Edison died at the age of eighty-four in 1931. Three days later， much of America dimmed its lights in honor of the inventor—man who had more impact on the development of present-day civilization than anyone else in history.

爱迪生于1931年去世，享年八十四岁。在他死后三天，美国大部分地区暗下灯来，纪念这位在历史上对现代文明发展最具影响力的发明家。